I've got 3 laptops and none of them keep time. 2 of them I rarely use so I'm not 100% familiar with their symptoms, but I'll describe the symptoms of my daily driver:

At first I thought it just quit counting time when I turned it off or it went into sleep mode. Then I noticed that when I would turn it on, I would set the time, and after a few hours of work (no power down or sleep) it would be off again by an hour or so. It will count "time" just not correctly. It's too slow.

All 3 of these laptops have spent extended periods of time (months) at the back of the closet. I suspect the MOBO batteries but I thought that when powered on, it would use the main battery to keep time, so I was thinking maybe there's more to it.

Set up Windows time server service so it stays synchronized with the atomic clocks (time.nist.gov is a good one). ntp is the same service on linux.

A $3 wristwatch keeps better time than most computer boards. The temperature changes a lot, altering the crystal/circuit frequency, in addition, when windows is running, it updates the "correct time" as well, and if the system gets loaded down, the clock can lose as much as 15 minutes a day!.

Set up time sync either through windows, or a freeware program called "Atomic" which keeps the clock set. On linux, manually run ntpdate time.nist.gov as root.

If the motherboard battery is bad, you'd have to set your time on each boot, in addition to BIOS options.

cmos battery or you accidentally set your settings for one time zone over. I've done that before. You manually reset it to the correct time, but it will then go online and convert it back to the time zone you selected. These are the two most common issues with time.

Set up Windows time server service so it stays synchronized with the atomic clocks (time.nist.gov is a good one). ntp is the same service on linux.

A $3 wristwatch keeps better time than most computer boards. The temperature changes a lot, altering the crystal/circuit frequency, in addition, when windows is running, it updates the "correct time" as well, and if the system gets loaded down, the clock can lose as much as 15 minutes a day!.

Set up time sync either through windows, or a freeware program called "Atomic" which keeps the clock set. On linux, manually run ntpdate time.nist.gov as root.

If the motherboard battery is bad, you'd have to set your time on each boot, in addition to BIOS options.

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I think this is the problem. He's got it set to autosync time but he's accidentally selected Central instead of Eastern. Or vice versa. So he turns on machine and its an hour slow. He manually sets it an hour ahead, then when the autosync kicks in it resets it an hour back.

I think this is the problem. He's got it set to autosync time but he's accidentally selected Central instead of Eastern. Or vice versa. So he turns on machine and its an hour slow. He manually sets it an hour ahead, then when the autosync kicks in it resets it an hour back.

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Nah, it's inconsistent. Some days it will be an hour behind, sometimes two, sometimes 4 or 5 days behind if I haven't set the proper time in a while.

I'm going to replace the battery just as soon as.... I get fed up enough with the clock.

Just download Atomic Clock Sync And set it to update the clock every hour while Windows is running and you should be good to go. Windows will write the correct time back out to the motherboard RTC, and that program will set the correct time on each boot.

No more headaches!

I have run it on servers that have a dead battery on the motherboard (each boot the BIOS config needs to be re-entered, a slight pain, but reboots are rare). It keeps them happily running the correct time, which is needed for a mail server and to keep file versioning systems from messing up.

Just download Atomic Clock Sync And set it to update the clock every hour while Windows is running and you should be good to go. Windows will write the correct time back out to the motherboard RTC, and that program will set the correct time on each boot.

No more headaches!

I have run it on servers that have a dead battery on the motherboard (each boot the BIOS config needs to be re-entered, a slight pain, but reboots are rare). It keeps them happily running the correct time, which is needed for a mail server and to keep file versioning systems from messing up.

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LIFE. SAVER.

Ok, that's a little dramatic, but I'm just happy I don't have to go inside the laptop. I hate going into laptops. Thank you very much.